Education in Newry and Mourne: an Historical Perspective 29th September 2016 – 3rd September 2017 Beulah Private , Kilkeel c.1928 – 1930. This school was a and preparatory school run by Mrs Gordon (back row, far right), which taught children from the age of 3 up to 12 years of age Courtesy of Catherine Hudson Réamhrá an Chathaoirligh Chairperson’s Foreword

Is cúis mhór athais domh réamhrá a scríobh don I am delighted to write the foreword to this booklet leabhrán seo a ghabhann leis an taispeántas sealadach which accompanies “Education in Newry and Mourne: de chuid Iarsmalann an Iúir agus Mhúrn, “Oideachas an Historical Perspective”, a temporary exhibition at san Iúr agus Múrna: Dearcadh Stairiúil”. Newry and Mourne Museum.

Ag baint leas as cáipéisí, grianghrafanna agus ábhair, Drawing on documents, photographs and objects, cíorann an taispeántas seo soláthar oideachais this exhibition explores the provision of education in sa cheantar. Scrúdaíonn sé ról na scoileanna the area. It examines the role of private in the príobháideacha sa 19ú haois, tús agus éifeacht na 19th century, the introduction and impact of National scoileanna náisiúnta, tionchar na n-aicmí creideamh in Schools, the influence of religious denominations in oideachais na háite and athruithe a tugadh isteach faoin local education and changes introduced by legislation. reachtaíocht. Developments in teaching methods and the content of Pléitear forbairtí i modhanna teagaisc agus ábhar na lessons over the decades are also considered. The range gceachtanna thar na blianta. Tugann réimse leathan of artefacts on display provide this exhibition with a deantán roinnt athchuimhní do na seandaoine chomh strong reminiscence element for older people while maith le léargas ar shaol na scoile sna laethanta fadó do giving children and young people an insight into school pháistí agus do dhaoine óga. life in by-gone days.

Tugann an taispeántas seo léargas dúinn ar ghné staire The exhibition will help us gain an insight into this áitiúla agus oidhreachta agus díríonn sé aird ar ról aspect of local history and heritage and highlight the ríthábhachtach an oideachais i bhforbairt an tsochaí i vital role education has made in the development of gceantar an Iúir agus Mhúrn. society in the Newry and Mourne area.

Thar ceann na hIarsmalainne ba mhaith liom mo On behalf of the Museum, I would like to thank all bhuíochas a ghabháil le achan uile duine a ghéill those who responded to the Museum’s appeal for d’iarratas na hIarsmalainne i dtaca le deantáin, artefacts, documents and information. Their generosity doiciméid agus eolas. Is mór againn a gcuid is much appreciated. flaithiúlachta. Councillor Gillian Fitzpatrick Chair of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council An Comhairleoir Gillian Mhic Giolla Phádraig Cathaoirleach Chomhairle Ceantair an Iúir, Mhúrn agus an Dúin funding, could go to a fee paying . Introduction In Newry, in 1948, the Intermediate School became Prior to the 1830s most education provision was Newry Grammar School. The post war years also saw private, either funded through churches, landowners or changes in qualifications, with the charitable organisations. introduction of national qualifications.

In south Armagh, for example, a schoolhouse was The provision of education in Northern remains built in Ballymoyer by the Kildare Place Society in the a contentious issue. Although integrated education early 19th century. This was subsequently endowed is expanding, it is still a highly segregated education by Marcus Synnot, the local landlord. Hedge schools, system at primary and secondary school level. Debate still continues with regard to academic selection at the mainly for the education of rural Catholic children, Pupils at St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland School, Stream Street, were also found throughout the district. Newry c. 1930s Originally located in a private house, Newry Bunscoil () age of eleven. Courtesy of William McAlpine moved to the former gasworks, Kilmorey Street, Newry in 1990, and a new Bunscoil building opened on site in December 1997. Pictured at the th opening, left to right, are Bríd Ní Rabhartaigh, Maria Caraher, Rev. Mervyn During the course of the 19 century there was an Kingston, Nóra Palmer and Siobhán Jackson increasing awareness of the lack of intermediate Courtesy of Stiofán Loughran Collection, Gaeláras Mhic Ardghail (secondary) education in Ireland. was provided by Protestant endowed schools and The Agricultural and Technical Instruction Act (1899) by Catholic religious orders including the Christian provided for training in technical skills to support the Brothers, who came to Newry in 1851, and Loreto economy, and technical schools were opened locally in Sisters. Newry, Kilkeel and Warrenpoint. A nationwide campaign for the introduction of With the partition of Ireland in 1921, the Ministry of intermediate education resulted in the passing of Education was set up in Northern Ireland. National the Intermediate Education (Ireland) Bill (1878). Schools became primary or public elementary schools. Kilmorey National School, Kilkeel, pictured in the early 1900s. This was one This established a Board which oversaw the setting of the schools on the Kilmorey Estate maintained by the Earls of Kilmorey Attempts to introduce a non-denominational structure Pupils from Our Lady’s Grammar School, Newry, setting off from Edward of courses, use of textbooks and the standard of Street Railway Station, on a school trip to Lourdes, Easter 1954 for the children of their tenants did not succeed and publicly funded schools became Newry and Mourne Museum examinations. Intermediate schools began to be built Courtesy of Our Lady’s Grammar School Protestant whilst a separate system in various towns throughout Ireland and one was developed simultaneously. Page from a needlework specimen A new education system was introduced in Ireland established in Corry Square in Newry. book compiled by Margaret McAteer in the Domestic Science class, while with the Education Act (1831) which established the The 1947 Education Act raised the school leaving age a pupil at the Sacred Heart Grammar In 1892 education became compulsory for all children School in 1958. The teacher was Sister Board of National Education. This provided non- to fifteen and created a new secondary school system between 6 and 14. The Belmore Commission was set Raphael denominational education and National Schools which pupils would transfer into at the age of eleven. Newry and Mourne Museum up in 1897 and concluded that the curriculum was out began to be built throughout Ireland. This included Children could go to an intermediate secondary school, of date and too narrow. A number of recommendations the monitorial method of teaching which was first put which was free and non-academic, or a technical were made to include practical skills such as drawing, into practice in 1845. This gave talented pupils the school at the age of thirteen. For those who passed the elementary science, physical education and manual opportunity to become monitors and go on to teacher the eleven plus exam, and thus receive government training . instruction. With the end of the in 1782, constraints Hedge Schools on Catholic education were removed, and many of Noreen Cunningham the hedge schools relocated to larger premises and continued as private schools. Before the 1830s, the provision of education was sporadic. Religious oppression under the penal laws Hedge schools were prevalent throughout the Newry meant that Catholics were forbidden to establish and Mourne area and some continued onwards after schools or educate their children abroad. These laws the 1830s. Various sources indicate that nearly every also affected Nonconformist Protestants, particularly townland had at least one hedge school. Presbyterians. Samuel Lewis recorded in 1837 that in the parish In A Report on the State of Popery in Ireland, 1731, of Belleek in south Armagh, “ …Two schools afford ‘Popish Schools’ were recorded in the parishes of instruction to about 160 boys and 100 girls; and there Clonduff and Kilbroney, which were most likely hedge are also two hedge schools in which there are about 50 schools. children, and 3 Sunday schools.”

Children of all ages were educated in hedge schools, In 1950, Padraic Keenan in his book, Saval in Ancient which were often located in secret places. These were and Modern Times commented; “… Long before the informal schools with rudimentary accommodation in days of Emancipation, ‘illegal’ schools flourished in the a barn or house in winter, or outdoors, sheltered under district, the Grant family – with a teaching tradition of a hedgerow or tree in summer. The qualifications of over two hundred years, being prominent in this field. Boys at Dromintee National School, south the teachers varied widely, from well educated scholars As late as 1843 Hugh Grant, aged 20 years, conducted Armagh, 1923 to former hedge school pupils. In rural areas, the a hedge school in Croreagh. Another old master who, The Education Act of 1831 provided for non- with thirty pupils, met “feloniously to learn” in a rude denominational education and National Schools agricultural calendar dictated attendance at the hedge began to be built throughout Ireland. Pictured school and the teachers were often itinerant. cabin built by the subscriptions of people in Carnacally, second row, second from right, is Michael J was Edward Cassidy, who was alive in 1824. His salary, Murphy, who left school at 14 to work as a labourer with local farmers. He developed an Teaching methods varied; as with the older bardic subscribed by the pupils amounted to £10 annually.” interest in storytelling and documented the school tradition, repetition was often an important part folklore of south Armagh of the learning process. The curriculum concentrated The introduction of the National Schools System in Newry and Mourne Museum on reading, writing and arithmetic. Teaching was 1831 heralded the decline of hedge schools in Ireland. mainly in English, and in some areas, Irish. Other subjects such as classical and modern languages were sometimes taught. The schools were usually financed by parents.

Artist's impression of a hedge school Newry and Mourne Museum My earliest memory of the school was going into Memories of St. Clare’s Convent, nursery class, which was the building that overlooked High Street, Newry High Street. It was a long, low classroom, one end of it had a rocking horse and the other, a doll’s house that Kathleen Harrington you could walk into. There was also a fireplace at either end, as there was no central heating. St. Clare’s Convent School was established in 1830 in High Street, Newry, following a request in 1829 by The highlights of school life were at Feis time, the Dr. Kelly, Bishop of Dromore, to the Sisters of St. Clare whole place was a buzz of activity with children to found a home with a focus on teaching the “poor practicing poems and choir singing. A Scottish nun, females” of Newry. Sister Bernadette, was the fore-runner of the choral speaking, then Sister Aquinas, and after she left Ethel My mother, all her sisters and my grandmother went to Fitzpatrick took over. St. Clare’s and I went there as a pupil, and then taught there for thirty-nine years. Pupils of St. Clare’s Convent Primary School pictured displaying trophies won at Newry Musical Feis in 1942. Kathleen Harrington is pictured front row, centre, wearing her Irish Dancing costume Courtesy of Kathleen Harrington

Tom King, pictured centre, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1985 - 1989), visiting St. Clare’s Convent Primary School in 1988 to see an exhibition on milk production connected with a Learning from Industry project Courtesy of St. Clare’s Abbey Primary School As a pupil, I conducted a choral speaking junior choir I got a teaching post in St. Clare’s Convent in 1956; a and brought them to the Feis. I remember running child came down to our house in Mary Street and she back up High Street and shouting up to the nuns’ said “Mother Basilica said you’re to come up now, she dormitories, “Sister Aquinas we won the cup!” That’s has a class for you”. how she knew we had won, as nuns could not leave the convent at that stage. School life went on during the Troubles, but children arrived late because of something that happened or After leaving St. Clare’s, I went to the Sacred Heart were not sent to school at all for fear of trouble breaking School and it was like going from home to home, as out on the way home. we only had to go down a flight of steps. We did choir singing with Mons. Delafaille who was the organist in The best bit about teaching was seeing a child who Newry Cathedral at the time, but there were less didn’t show very much promise at the beginning, activities and a lot of work. coming on at the end of Primary 7, being confident and able to speak for herself, and stand on her own two feet. My teacher training was at St. Mary’s College in Belfast. We did teaching practice in Belfast in first and second year, and then back home in Newry, in St. Clare’s. Ballyholland Primary School Colm McAteer In the early part of the 19th century Ballyholland, located on the outskirts of Newry, was a densely populated townland, with an economy dependent on farming small plots of land. For those who wanted to learn, education was usually through a hedge school, with one recorded in the nearby townland of Grinan.

After the 1830s, National Schools were gradually introduced by the government. By 1902 elementary education was free and attendance at school was Pupils at Commons National School, 1913. The Commons school was a typical 19th school building consisting of a one room classroom and an compulsory until the age of twelve. Local children adjoining residence for the Master. Catholic children transferred from this mainly attended schools in the neighbouring school to the new Ballyholland Primary School in 1921 townlands of the Commons and Grinan. Courtesy of William McAlpine

In the years leading up to, and during the First World the Principal, Mr McGuigan, and Mrs McShane and War, it became apparent that a larger school was needed teaching emphasis was on the three ‘Rs’, reading, to accommodate the growing school population, and writing and arithmetic. one-room schools such as Grinan were no longer sufficient to meet demand. During the Second World War, evacuees from Belfast were billeted locally and attended school in Lobbying for proper school facilities led to a site being Ballyholland. In February 1944 Mr McGuigan died and obtained for a new school. Land was purchased from was replaced with a new principal, Dan White. the Dowdall family, who lived near the Ballyholland Pupils and teachers from Ballyholland Primary School after winning at cross-roads, and building work commenced in 1920. Major renovations came in the mid 1960s when electric The school was totally refurbished in 2006 with an Newry Musical Feis in 1956. Teachers include Mrs O’Hagan (seated centre), light was introduced and sanitation improved. There additional three purpose built classrooms and a back row standing (left to right) Patrick Kearns, Lucy McDonald and Ballyholland School opened in April 1921, and the were now four classrooms and an office. School dinners resource area added to meet demand for places in the Vincent Rennick first pupils that joined the school were 55 boys and 52 were no longer made on site and were now delivered in school. Courtesy of Newry Musical Feis girls. The majority of the children transferred from the large steel containers. One of the class rooms doubled Commons and Grinan schools and also the Christian as a small canteen with adjoining kitchen. Two mobile This tradition of strong support by the local community Brothers and St Clare’s Convent School in Newry, while classrooms were also erected in the playground. continues, and teachers and support staff provide the rest were infants. Ballyholland Primary School was outstanding pastoral care, teaching and sporting the first co-educational school in Newry Parish. By the early 1980s, with an expanding school excellence for the pupils. catchment area and rising pupil numbers, four more By the 1930s the school had three classrooms divided classrooms were built as well as a large dining room by a partition that could be pulled back for meetings that doubled as an assembly hall. Meals are cooked and dances. There were two teachers at this time, on site and the kitchen staff has always excelled in the quality of meals provided. Mourne Grange School, 1900 – 1971 Ken Abraham Mourne Grange Preparatory School was set up in 1900 by Allen Sausmarez Carey. Originally from Guernsey, A.S. Carey was the tutor to Francis Needham, the future 4th Earl of Kilmorey and was offered Dromindoney House on the Kilmorey estate at Mourne Park, near Kilkeel, in which to open a preparatory school. The first of its kind in Ireland, the purpose Postcard showing Mourne Grange School in the 1920s. The original of the school was to prepare boys between eight and Drumindoney House can be seen on the left with the 1904 extension in the centre which contained a dining hall on the ground floor and dormitories thirteen years of age for public school. above. Further classrooms were in the building on the right Newry and Mourne Museum Although the school opened with only four pupils and three teachers, the early years saw expansion in terms of pupil and staff numbers, schools buildings By 1927 there were 92 boys, nine masters and three and curriculum. By 1908 classrooms and dormitories mistresses at Mourne Grange and these numbers had been added to the original house and the school remained much the same for the next ten years. In uniform of a royal blue blazer with white edging and 1933, Patrick Carey, the Headmaster’s son, joined the dark blue cap with the badge of the Carey family was staff. Known as ‘Mr Patrick’, his main contribution was being worn. Subjects taught included Mathematics, amateur dramatics which were a major part of school French, History, and Greek. English Language life up until the 1960s, often undertaken in association and Literature were bolstered by Mrs Carey’s readings with the Newpoint Players from Newry. Patrick Carey of novels to the boys on Sunday evenings, a tradition became Headmaster when his father died in 1954. maintained by Mrs Carey until her death in 1960. Circumstances began to change at Mourne Grange Sport also played a vital part in the school curriculum. during the 1960s. A tougher economic climate, A cricket pitch was laid out in 1903 and other games competition from other preparatory schools in included rugby, football and athletics. In 1915, the Ireland, greater improvements in state education in school was divided into two houses – Greeks and the post-war years and a changing attitude towards Trojans – to create rivalry and competition in sport. sending young children away to , led ‘Education expeditions’ to local places of interest were to a gradual decline in pupil numbers. The school also introduced and over the years there were annual eventually closed in June 1971 and is now the home of excursions to destinations and notable events in Britain Camphill Community Mourne Grange for adults with and Europe. special needs. Trojan XI Cricket Team at Mourne Grange School, 1952. Pupils at Mourne Grange were divided into two houses, Greeks and Trojans, for sports. Cricket was always a popular game and the school had strong teams even when pupil numbers declined in the 1960s Courtesy of Johnny Madden History of Non-Segregated Secondary Education in Newry Joanne Cummins Newry High School celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. However, the origins of the school extend back much earlier to the late 19th century.

In the mid 19th century, Newry had a number of private schools. From 1858 there were calls for a state supported scheme of intermediate, non Photograph of Newry Intermediate School in the late 1930’s. Designed by denominational education to bridge the gap between William James Watson, the school was built in the mid 1890s. In April 1921 elementary and education. As an important a new wing, dedicated to the memory of past pupils who served in the First commercial town, Newry had need of an education World War, was opened. A further extension was completed in 1938 and electric light installed system to prepare middle class pupils ‘for public service Newry and Mourne Museum at home and abroad, for professional and mercantile life and for higher classes of industrial pursuits’. In 1948 the school changed its name to Newry In 1859 a deputation of gentlemen from the north of Grammar School. By 1953, with over 350 pupils, the Ireland met with the Lord Lieutenant in Dublin to school was hampered by a lack of adequate space, press the issue, with James McGeorge representing the facilities and playing fields. Premises in Downshire interests of Newry. Road and Windsor Bank were being used for classes and the staff room used as a classroom. The Intermediate Education (Ireland) Bill was finally of its kind, and, we hope, due to add to the history Designed by Major G.W. Reside, Ashgrove Secondary Intermediate School st opened in September 1960. The school merged with Newry Grammar to passed in 1878. The Intermediate Board organised On the 1 September 1960 Newry County Intermediate of education in the Province. . . The High School is form Newry High School in 1966 examinations, ensured uniform standards and paid School at Ashgrove was opened with 394 pupils on concerned with producing young people with open, yet Courtesy of William McAlpine results fees to successful school managers and prizes the register. Also known as Ashgrove Secondary critical minds, of goodwill towards their fellows of every and exhibitions (scholarships) to successful candidates. Intermediate or the ‘Inter’, the school was purpose kind of background, with a readiness to cooperate in a They did not fund school buildings or pay teachers built to provide a new concept in education; education spirit of friendship or, at least, of understanding.” The salaries. Newry Intermediate School was established according to age, aptitude and ability, with a focus Minister of Education for Northern Ireland, Captain W. in Corry Square with the Earl of Kilmorey as its on training pupils in practical skills. The pupils even Long, addressed the school on their first school prize patron and Henry Thompson, MP as vice-Patron. In carried out grounds maintenance and grew vegetables. day in April 1968. June 1891 the school was destroyed by a fire and was transferred to Bank Parade and then to a lecture hall at In 1966, Ashgrove Secondary Intermediate and Newry The school operated between both sites for seven years, Downshire Road Presbyterian Church. A new school Grammar School amalgamated to form Newry High with some pupils travelling between Downshire Road and teacher’s residence was built on the Downshire School, with 860 pupils and 48 members of staff. In and Ashgrove for lessons until new buildings were Road in the mid 1890s. his report of 1966/67 Head Master Mr J.M. Clements added in 1973 to accommodate the larger school at described the new school as, “...one of the first schools Ashgrove. Growing up in the Abbey Christian Brother’s Grammar School Greag Mac t’Saoir

Like many other Newry boys I spent a large part of my teenage years in the Abbey Christian Brothers Grammar School, perched above the town on Courtenay Hill. My perspective on my time there was coloured by the fact that my father Eugene McAteer, A certificate for internal school examinations held at the end of Form III nicknamed ‘Gene Genie’ after the Bowie song, Newry and Mourne Museum sometimes called ‘Rubiks Cube’ on account of his stocky build, was the school caretaker.

When the school opened its doors to its first pupils Pupils would have been familiar with the teachers and in 1966 my father had already worked there for three known them mostly by their nicknames. years as one of Felix O’Hare’s builders. He had become a father in 1963 and would have been glad of the steady I also knew a host of other school staff. When I started work that such an extensive project promised. As my first summer job there at the age of thirteen I the build progressed he attended many site meetings worked alongside people like Paddy Campbell and later with the then principal Brother Newell on whom he Matt McAteer, the assistant caretakers, Jimmy Smith clearly made an impression. A devout Catholic and the gardener, the lab technicians – Joe Canavan who a well known Irish dancer, he fitted the Christian was the lighting technician with Newpoint Players Brothers’ twin preoccupations with Irish culture and before landing a job in RTE, Anne Lappin and Bernie Pupils and teachers at the Abbey Grammar School, Newry pictured in the 1930s conservative Catholicism. He knew the building from Finnegan who kept the science laboratories on track. Newry and Mourne Museum the girders out, so Brother Newell had good reason to I also knew Maurice Toner and Geraldine Kane in the recruit him as the school’s first caretaker. principal’s office, the dinner ladies, cleaners and the main office staff Pat Crawley, Mary and Tess who made My mother also worked, so from a young age I spent sure, crucially, that everyone got paid. All these played my Saturdays and holidays in the boiler house where their own parts, cogs in the complex machinery that my father had a workshop. I learned how to rivet made sure that the pupils enrolled at the school got a lockers, glaze windows, varnish desks and reset the decent education. huge asbestos clad boilers that drove the school’s heating supply. 1936-38 marked the commencement of the final St. Colman’s College, Newry phase of that building programme. The new Chapel of Martin Goss Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, was erected at the western end of the present frontage and solemnly The Newry Telegraph of May 6th 1823, announced the consecrated by Dr Mulhern on Wednesday 26th opening of the Dromore Diocesan School, under the October 1938. presidency of Rev John Sproule Keenan. On May 12th, the school began to operate in a “commodious house” The transition to a day-school, the demands of the in William Street. Its students soon numbered 40, curriculum and growing numbers have necessitated the paying an annual fee of £10 with the added attraction continued expansion of the College facilities and some of cold baths “easily obtainable as the tide comes five building schemes since 1958 have greatly enlarged near the seminary”. However, the need for further St Colman’s College’s “imprint” on the Violet Hill site. accommodation led to the renting of a building at Violet Hill in1829. The Bishop of Dromore, Dr Michael The complete re-development of the playing fields in Blake purchased the Violet Hill property on September the late 1990s improved the College’s sporting facilities. 23rd 1834, for the nominal sum of 10 shillings and The provision of a flood-lit third-generation full size so began the long association of St Colman’s College, Gaelic sports pitch, the upgrading of the existing seminary to the Diocese of Dromore, with the Violet pitches, a golf practice area and an athletics track and Hill site. facilities on the College site in co-operation with Sport Winners of the Corn Mic Ruaidrí (MacRory Cup), 1948 – 1949 NI and the former Newry & Mourne District Council This is the annual Ulster Senior Football competition, first held in 1923. St Colman’s College have won this nineteen times, the highest number As the 1944 history of the College noted; “… have all been completed. of wins for any school in Ulster Immediately upon the purchase of the building as a Courtesy of St. Colman’s College seminary, Dr Blake . . . set about the extension of the St Colman’s College at Violet Hill has expanded beyond College. Within a year the new eastern front, in which the wildest dreams of its founders on this site almost the bishop himself was to reside, was erected and a few 200 years ago and now stands magnificently placed years later the original college chapel was added. …” to deliver the modern curriculum in all its varieties and to meet whatever challenges the education future In 1875 plans were drawn up for the erection of the may bring. Yet, the opening announcement’s mission lower half of the present frontage and of the College statement of 1823 still provides St Colman’s College Tower. Known as the “new House”, it was complete by with its raison d’etre; “… The great end of education 1879, and, viewed from the Belfast Road, remains one is to make us better men and better Christians – that of the iconic images of St Colman’s College. howmuchsoever the mind may be enlightened, if it is not improved and directed to the great moral and The next phase of College building in the 1920-1922 religious duties, the principal object is neglected. To form scheme extended the “New House” westwards adding and guide the tender mind in the pursuit of truth- to the wing that extends from the current main entrance endeavour to impress it with a sense of religion - is the to the chapel steps. According to the 1944 History; “… Promotional postcards for St. Colman’s College, dating from the 1920s laborious yet pleasing duty of the instructor of Youth. …” (the) entire new set of buildings, embracing study hall, Courtesy of Martin Goss temporary Chapel, refectory, and dormitories may be said to have resulted in the complete transformation of the original College. …” Newry Municipal Technical School Anna Marie McClelland

The Agricultural and Technical Instruction Act, 1899, came into operation on 1st April 1901, and was adopted unanimously by Newry Urban District Council in February, 1902. Under the terms of the Act, a Technical Instruction Committee was appointed, consisting of seven members of the Urban Council and nine ratepayers. In June 1902, the Newry Technical Terry Crilley (writing on the blackboard) pictured in a shorthand class in Instruction Committee, which included members Newry Municipal Technical School c. 1900s. Terry Crilley was a teacher at the Abbey Christian Brothers’ Grammar such as Arthur McCann (Victoria Bakery), Henry School in Newry and taught evening classes at the Technical School Barcroft (Bessbrook Mill) and J.H. Russell, selected the Courtesy of Mary Clarke old Town Hall as a suitable site for Newry Municipal Technical School. In September 1903, P.G. Hamilton Carvill, MP, formally Mr E. Holden was appointed Principal on the 17th opened Newry Municipal Technical School for the October 1902, and he undertook preparation of the Borough of Newry and 439 students were enrolled. plans, specifications, alterations, furnishings and The school was divided into five separate departments: equipment for Newry’s first Municipal Technical commercial, applied and natural sciences, engineering School. The total cost of this work amounted to £600 and building trades, art and domestic. Fireplaces were 15s, close to the original estimate of £600. fitted into each room and the building was lighted throughout with incandescent gas lights and; “... In Technical Instruction Committees throughout Ireland decorating the school, green was chosen owing to its restfulness for the students’ eyes...” were encouraged to make available such courses that Principal E. Holden (front row, centre) and staff pictured c.1912 on the steps would meet the needs and demands of local industries House. The Technical College became the College of of the Newry Municipal Technical School (now The Sean Hollywood Arts in the areas they were situated. On January 19th 1903, Due to demand, there was soon a need for expansion. in 1969 and moved to new premises Centre) Newry Municipal Technical School commenced In the 1960s the Newry Technical College occupied on Patrick Street. It is now amalgamated with other Newry and Mourne Museum ‘Preparatory Evening Classes’. The classes were a numerous buildings throughout Newry: Victoria Technical Colleges in Armagh and Down, and forms success, and Mr Holden announced in a report in Buildings on Margaret Street (now the McGrath the Southern Regional College. Outside of Belfast, this March of that year that 69 students had enrolled, with Centre), Clanrye Building on Margaret Street, (formally is the largest Further and College in an average class attendance of 45. Trades represented the Carstands School and now demolished), the Northern Ireland with a total of six campuses. It caters included carpenters, engineers, clerks, drapers, Commercial Building, Merchants Quay and another for approximately 34,000 students each year and has in painters, masons, plumbers, and shop assistants. building on the Downshire Road, beside the Court excess of 900 members of staff. Pupils and teacher at Newry Model School, 1951. The school opened in 1849 as a District Model National School and was the first of its type in Ulster. There were separate spaces for the “infants”, boys and girls and some students boarded Courtesy of William McAlpine Students and staff pictured at Kilkeel Technical Intermediate School, 1952 – 1953. The technical school was housed in part of Kilkeel Workhouse Courtesy of Catherine Hudson We would also like to extend a special thanks to those Acknowledgements who contributed to the exhibition through articles for Thanks are due to the staff, intern students and the booklet, donations, loans, expertise or memories volunteers of Newry and Mourne Museum for their including: assistance in this exhibition and accompanying booklet: Mary Clarke Declan Carroll Dr Mary Goss Joanne Cummins Martin Goss Barry Ferris Kathleen Harrington Caroline Hegarty Catherine Hudson Corey McDowell Johnny Madden Amanda McKinstry Greag Mac a’t Saoir Francesca Owens The Cummins Family Sharon Paul The McClean Family Anna Marie McClelland Ursula Mhic An tSaoir Kelly-Marie Savage Colm McAteer Dympna Tumilty William McAlpine Newry Musical Feis St. Colman’s College, Newry Gaeláras Mhic Ardghail Our Lady’s Grammar School St Clare’s Abbey Primary School Victoria College, Belfast

Compiled by Noreen Cunningham and Dr Ken Abraham

Every effort has been made to correctly attribute photographs used in this booklet and accompanying exhibition. Pupils from St. Colman’s Abbey Primary School who took part in The Back cover: Drawing by Pat Hudson of the boys’ classroom at St. Colman’s Conceited Pirate at the Rice Memorial Fund concert in 1945. Back row, left (Dunavan) School, Kilkeel. Pat was a pupil at the school in the early 1930s to right, Frank Gray, John McMillan, John Haughey, Pedar Cowan, Frank Courtesy of Catherine Hudson McArdle, Noel Marron, Willy O’Hare. Front row, left to right, Eugene McKevitt, Sean Cunningham, Pat Heaney, John Kearns, Brian O’Callaghan, Bernard McGuinness Newry and Mourne Museum Design: G. Watters